Month: June 2018

Mexican left may win presidency

Lopez Obrador's rhetoric hasn't changed in 30 years
by Leslie Layton | Posted June 30, 2018

photo by Gustavo Benítez courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO)

In 1988, I traveled with Andrés Manuel López Obrador – the man expected to win Sunday’s presidential election in Mexico — during his gubernatorial campaign in the southern state of Tabasco. I covered his quirky, upstart campaign for the San Francisco Chronicle, often riding in the back of his family’s little Volkswagen, largely because I sensed that he’d eventually be influential nationally, if not someday elected president.

This is to suggest that this passionate, fierce and bloody presidential race has been in the making for a very long time, and because 30 years ago a younger López Obrador was already a skilled politician. He was charismatic and smart, and he seemed to just need the right moment to stake his claim to the presidency and deliver power to the Mexican left. read more

AquAlliance, Winnemem blast bid to raise Shasta Dam

Environmental group says raising dam would swamp thousands of acres
by Dave Waddell | Posted June 28, 2018

photo courtesy of California Department of Water Resources

Hillside erosion around Lake Shasta in a drought year

A decades-old plan to raise Shasta Dam – resuscitated by the Trump administration — would not only flood what little remain of the Winnemem Wintu’s sacred tribal lands but more broadly denude “thousands of acres” of forested watershed above Lake Shasta.

The estimate of forest area to be inundated is from AquAlliance, a Chico-based environmental group. AquAlliance contends that a higher dam would drown riparian plant and animal life around Lake Shasta, leaving more hillsides naked and more sediment eroding to the bottom of the reservoir.

Media attention to date has largely focused on what raising 602-foot Shasta Dam by 18 1/2 feet would do to the scenic McCloud River, a trout-fishing oasis revered by the Winnemem and protected against dam building by California law. read more

El movimiento verde se vuelve café

The 'browning' of California's green movement
by Peter Schurmann | Posted June 26, 2018

foto via Flickr

Hace casi treinta años, Juana Gutiérrez, residente de East Los Ángeles y madre de nueve niños, retó a un gigante del petróleo y ganó. Reconocida positivamente en su momento en los medios nacionales e internacionales, se la veía a Gutiérrez como en la vanguardia de un movimiento medioambiental “incipiente”, uno arraigado profundamente en las comunidades de color de California cada vez más numerosas. (Read this story in English here.)

Hoy en día ese movimiento incipiente ha alcanzado su plenitud en lo que rápidamente se está convirtiendo en la nueva corriente principal del activismo medioambiental del estado. read more

Chicoan recalls xenophobia of her childhood

WWII internment camps unjustly imprisoned Americans
by Diane Suzuki | Posted June 22, 2018

courtesy of Diane Suzuki

I am Sansei, a third-generation Japanese-American who did not experience the hardship and humiliation of being rounded up without due process and imprisoned for three to four years as my elders did. But I did experience the racism and xenophobia in the 1950s in the aftermath of war.

Refugees fleeing violence from their homelands south of our border are now being locked up in immigration detention centers that are intentionally located in isolated sites. Americans should be ashamed that these men, women and children are being imprisoned in our country with the threat of being sent back to where they might be killed. read more

Citizen review of Chico police urged by group

Phillips, Rushing shootings prompted six-point reform plan
by Dave Waddell | Posted June 15, 2018

photo by Karen Laslo

Emily Alma

A group of citizens that has produced an ambitious “vision” for Chico police reform first came together last year after the officer-involved-shooting deaths of Desmond Phillips and Tyler Rushing.

“We were like magnets,” said Margaret Swick, a member of a group calling itself Concerned Citizens for Justice. “We were just pulled together. We were just concerned about the police shootings.”

On Monday (June 18) from 6 to 8:30 p.m., Concerned Citizens for Justice will give a community airing to its six-point program for “improving the climate of respect between law enforcement and the community.” One reform the group describes as “essential” is establishing “an independent, impartial citizen board with authority to review all police files.” The public meeting will be held at the Chico branch of the Butte County Library, 1108 Sherman Ave. read more